Social Hallucinations

Music is an experience and TV is social

What I like most about the technology is the new communication opportunities it brings. Clever thinking and creating synergies between stuff we know and the new possibilities, makes the same old story sound a bit more  new and refreshing. The to good examples of this are Black Eyed Peas and German TV show Galileo.

Black Eyed Peas has developed an iphone app BEP360 to promote (sell) their new album and video.

BEP360 is an interactive music video that provides augment reality experience (you just need BEP album cover to activate it). There is also option that gives user tools to create photo session with the band and share it with other fans. Pretty cool way to activate music on other level than just traditional video. Hope to see more such an initiatives.

 

Another examples proves that TV can be social if you make an effort to provide viewers with the relevant tools. 

German TV show Galileo used augmented reality browser app Junaio to run an interactive quiz for their viewers. Viewers had to hold their phone cameras up to the TV screen and point them at the answer they wanted to select. Image recognition worked out which answer was being selected and a tap of the screen submitted it.Viewers received instant feedback whether their answer was right or wrong. The quiz activity was promoted before  and the whole activity seemed to be a success with an increase in TV show share among 14-49 year old viewers. 

Something that wil stick or rather one time phenomena. Time will tell. But there is no doubt that TV can be a social and engaging experience. 

You can see a video of the TV experiment (after an ad) here.

 

 

iPad magazine is not just a magazine

It is an iPad magazine. Sounds trivial but this is what most of publishers are missing while they launch pdf versions of magazines to read on ipad. iPad gives publishers the opportunities to provide people with an interesting and dynamic content, integrate brands and experiences. Still publishers stick to the old good formats and try to digitalize paper. It doesn't make easier to earn money.

I have been checking out a few magazines but none of them really impressed me until I stumbled upon Richard Branson's Project. What a great experience. It is a pleasure to see how the possibilities are exploited and deliver different forms of experience. Easiness of navigation, surprising possibilities to browse through content and of course interesting content. 

Well, but see for yourself here or download your own Project app ($2.99 for issue)

 

No channels world

The boundaries between media are dissolving. People don't look for channels they want to tap it, they look for content which is accessible and interesting enough they want to spend a time on it. 

 

Mobile Year in Review

Neat video summarizing 2010 year in mobile industry. 

 

Print Is Not Dead

Cute commercial for launch of the new magazine Anthology .

What's great about magazines is that you can have it with you and read it on the go, at home, at the office...as long as it inspires and is relevant. 

The Extensions of Man

Technology empowers. Photo camera that enables people to create memories that would be lost if not for the camera. Camera that becomes the extention of the man.Well captured by Samsung.

via Scary ideas

 

What is Facebook Places?

Facebook Places has been launched in US and will soon reach probably the rest of the world. Some deaths are being discussed (Foursquare) as we try find out what Facebook places will mean for people and marketers.

Facebook for marketing as other geo-location services has a huge potential but how the potential turns out depends on the inventiveness of companies in adding more meaning to checking in. Checking-in is fun, especially in the first phase. It is like a game. The thrill of becoming a mayor, getting the badge. Then comes competitiveness. Ousting your friends from places and taking over their mayorship. Trying the first specials...and it appears there are no more specials near you. You just check-in less and less often. You ask yourself - why I should check-in. You lack the purpose. I believe the success of Facebook places for business will depend on the sense of purpose it manage to deliver to people.

As it goes for people, Facebook places will make geo-location accessible to broader audience. It will be another tool for sharing with friends where we are and what we are doing. As my colleague Lara wrote in her post on privacy: "Places provides us with another way of keeping tabs on our friends, of letting people know what we’re up to, of sharing what is basically unnecessary information with anyone and everyone we choose. It’s also another foray in to our private world, and will no doubt meet harsh critique from users who suddenly realise that what is actually private about their lives is diminishing at a very rapid rate."

Watch how you can check in with Facebook Places

 

Mobile & Social Media in Scandinavia

A demographic study within the Nordics of people mobile phone habits, and social ’s media network habits...men and women, boys and girls, from 15 – 55, from all over the Nordic regions, and from all walks of life....

Mobile & social media in Scandinavia

View more presentations from Vizeum Denmark. or read more about Vizeum

 

Technology Epitaph is Useless

The latest Chris Anderson's article in Wired on the death of web was rather provoking and caused quite a stir.

What always surprise me is the easiness with which we kill things around and present them as useless. Like we discard old clothes, we try to discard the technology. We've already tried to kill radio, TV and print. All three are still living and doing quite good, but the way they are used has changed.

As history shows, technologies evolve and being shaped by people and their needs they can coexist and merge.

There is some pinch of sensationalism in the way of declaring web dead. Alexis Madrigal from Atlantic responded to Anderson's article: "What's Wrong with X is Dead".

"From the vantage point of the present, it may seem that technologies are deterministic. But this view is incorrect, no matter how plausible it may seem. Cultures select and shape technologies, not the other way around, and some societies have rejected or ignored even the gun or the wheel. For millennia, technology has been an essential part of the framework for imagining and moving into the future, but the specific technologies chosen have varied. As the variety of human cultures attests, there have always been multiple possibilities, and there seems no reason to accept a single vision of the future." (David Nye, Technology Matters)

Killing the web seems like the attempt to simplify and feel more in control over the complex and unpredictable world of people behavior and interactions - choosing a single vision for the future. It is tempting to have a single vision, because it is more manageable and controllable but world keeps on evolving into plenty of parallel and intersecting paths.

There is no need to write an epitaph when nobody died.

Mass Media Theory vs. Mass Media Reality

The beauty of theory is that it operates on the wish level. It expresses what we wish for...and then comes reality that often verifies theory in a harsh way

via Toothpaste for dinner

All that Jazz

"The Tracker" (El Perseguidor) is the tribute to Charlie Parker by amazing Julio Cortázar.

I remember spending hours and neglecting school in favor of his words and magic universes they've created. Every his book was an awesome adventure. 

Now, the great illustrator José Muñoz created the trailer for the book playing with high rough lines, sleepless Paris of the 50-ties and unforgettable Charlie. Result - the piece of cool. Let the pictures, words and music take you away.

Baby, say it one more time

Throughout my career at media agencies I've faced many times the question 'how many times people have to see our message to get it? We have developed tools that based on the research and common sense helped us to establish the levels of so called effective frequency. This graph from Armano's and Rubel's presentation on 6 digital trends seems to be in line what we've been doing and believing (I am curious how they've come to those numbers). Majority of people need to hear things 3-5 times before they sink in. This of course depends on the complexity of the message, the context and the environment we are communicating in. It requires crafting the messages that it are easy to understand and are relevant to people.

 

Though, it doesn't mean we need to push the same message 5 times through the same channel, over and over again in hope people finally get it. When message isn't relevant, they will never get it, rather get annoyed or immune over it. The repetition and effective frequency is more to me about "lightning lots of small fires" like Mark Earls says, meaning we create many contact points with people in spaces where they already are, where they are in the right receptive mode and context. It is not necessarily about sending out the same message but adapting the message to environment it is going to be seen in. Integrate and adapt, be always in beta to get best out of it and make sure people hear what you say by communicating smarter.

The World is a Global Village

Marshall McLuhan explores how electronic media are changing society moving from individuals of print culture to tribes of electronic media culture.

The old media aren't replaced by the new ones, the just change the role they play in people's lives and society along with cultural changes the new media trigger. Evolution.

It is incredible to see that 50 years old interview and experience how future proof are some McLuhan's thesis.

via Wabi-Sabi Lab

Your Life, Your Game: The Art of Collecting Points

Great show by Jesse Schell game developer and great performer on how Facebook and diverse social platforms will influence our reality, not only the way we communicate but the way we learn, shop ... the way we live! To sum up his fascinating thoughts: everything will be part of the game and we will earn points to get rewards...figure it out!

Making is Connecting

The new promise of creativity and innovation by connecting digital tools, activism, happiness and social capital by David Gauntlett

Digital tools aren't really worth much unless they are enable people to do stuff, innovate, initiate the change. Brilliant.